This is dialect for fist but I can not find it in any dictionary
mikecork Mon 06/10/08 09:42
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Question Author
My apologies, this is my first use of this site. I wanted to find a reference to it in the dictionar to understand how this dialect originated.
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well that makes things much, much clearer!
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this might be better placed in word origins....a sub-topic in phrases and sayings category.
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I'm none the wiser, but is the word naive?
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i was being a tad sarcastic sara , unusual i know but every now and then...........
no way is it naive!
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how did you come across this word mikecork?
did someone ask you if you fancied a bit of nieveing?
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sorry, I'm obviously very naive!
tell me what it is.. if it doesn't get you banned ;o)
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I though Nieve was an irish girl's name.
But the way chavs would spell it because they don't know the correct Irish spelling.
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Question Author
nieve
"clenched fist" (northern and Scot. dialect), c.1300, from O.N. hnefi (cf. Norw. dial. neve, Swed. näfve, Dan. næve), not found in any other Gmc. language.
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as anyone here ever tried nieveing?
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okay, so when I saw the word "fist" in the question, I assumed it was a type and should have said "first"... due to the strange wording of said question.
I'll get my coat........
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nice googling mike , nice , well done.
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Brings to mind Julian Clary and Normal Lamont. Ouch...
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a crossword clue or something, wasn't it? I don't know what dictionary you found it in but it sounds like a crossworder's one. Just one of those words that's all but died out
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Burns uses it in his "Ode to a Haggis" in which he speaks disparagingly of the non-haggis eater (code for Sassenach!)
Poor devil! see him owre his trash,
As ******** as a wither'd rash,
His spindle shank, a guid whip-lash,
His nieve a nit;
Thro' bluidy flood or field to dash,
O how unfit!
But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread.
Clap in his walie nieve a blade,
He'll make it whissle;
An' legs, an' arms, an' heads will sned,
Like taps o' thrissle.
It also comes up in the Scandinavian game hnefatafl - fist board game. The king piece is called the hnefi perhaps because he is "unarmed"; perhaps because that's how players chose sides in the game, picking one fist or the other in an effort to pick the king.
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Question Author
Thanks jno. My students appreciated your comment!!
It was indeed a clue to one of last weekends crosswords. We discuss each Monday and this final answer had stumped us but we found a link to this web site and we were given the answer "nieve" The students wanted to know the background to the origin of this dialect word but they could not find it in any dictionary.
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It's in The Oxford English Dictionary plus Chambers and Bloomsbury dictionaries...as well as being in daily spoken use in north-east Scotland!
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